


Growing Pains

by hilariouslygrounded



Series: Building Family [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Fix-It, M/M, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin Raise Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 16,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24031507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hilariouslygrounded/pseuds/hilariouslygrounded
Summary: Remus searches for Voldemort's horcruxes while Harry struggles with both adolescence and new magical threats. Sequel to Damage Control.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Building Family [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1449436
Comments: 50
Kudos: 233





	1. One

One of the things that bothered Harry the most about the aftermath of closing the Chamber of Secrets was that Lucius Malfoy never received any retribution for his role in the attacks on several students, a ghost, and Remus. The closest thing to punishment the man experienced was quietly being voted off the board of governors for Hogwarts. Aside from that, there was no public denouncement, no fine, no stint in Azkaban. 

In fact, it seemed that only Harry's circle of friends, their various guardians, and Dumbledore seemed to know he'd been involved at all. Harry's parents seemed bothered by this turn of events as well, but to his annoyance they did nothing to rectify the situation. 

Sirius changed the subject every time Harry tried to bring it up. He would ask Harry about the books he was reading, or tell him to focus on his summer homework, or ask for his advice on the modified curriculum he was creating for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which he was to be teaching come September. 

Remus was too busy with whatever it was that he'd quit teaching to do. He was often away from home for several days at a time, and when he returned he usually buried himself elbow deep in reference books and letters from Dumbledore and asked not to be disturbed. 

That was another cause for Harry's annoyance. Remus appeared to be doing something dreadfully important, and neither he nor Sirius would tell Harry what it was. 

On the bright side, Harry's friends were planning a joint birthday party for him and Neville, whose birthdays were a day apart, at the end of the month. After much begging, the adults relented. 

They'd selected the Weasley house as the venue because the Burrow was in a semi-remote location and large enough to house that many people. Remus even took a few days off to set up a number of defensive spells, because after the school year everyone just had, nobody was taking any chances with the kids' safety. 

By the time the day of the party finally arrived, Harry was starved of social interaction. He couldn't wait to see everyone again. Well, not everyone. Due to obvious animosity between Draco's father and everyone else, Draco wouldn't be attending. 

"Have you got Neville's present?" Sirius asked as he lit a fire so they could floo over to the Burrow. 

Harry grinned and held up the box wrapped in green paper patterned with toads. "Got it!" 

"Then let's get going." Sirius grabbed a handful of floo powder from the jar on the mantle. 

"What about Remus?" 

"He's coming later." 

"Oh." Harry frowned, but he took a handful of floo powder all the same. Sirius sent him through first and followed right behind. 

Most of the other party guests were already assembled in the Weasley's living room when he stepped out of the fire. Mrs. Weasley took the present from Harry to put with the others, while Fred tackled him so George could force a party hat onto his head. 

Harry extracted himself from the twins and made his way over to his friends. All of them were wearing party hats as well, though by the redness of Ron's ears it seemed like an involuntary fashion choice. 

"Hiya Harry!" 

"Hullo Harry!" 

"Hi Harry! Happy birthday!" 

"Same to you Neville!" 

"Where's Remus?"

"Busy. Sirius says he'll be coming later." 

"I'm sure whatever he's doing is important," Hermione said gently. Harry shrugged. 

There was a knock at the door. Mrs. Weasley rushed to answer it. A minute later, she returned with Dudley and a blonde woman who looked mildly uncomfortable. Mr. Weasley offered her a party hat, which she declined, while the twins subjected Dudley to the same treatment they’d given Harry and the others.

Dudley led the woman over to the group of kids. "Mum, these are my friends. Friends, this is my mum." 

"You may call me Mrs. Anderson," she added. 

"Except Harry." Dudley dragged him to the front by his wrist. "He can call you Aunt Petunia, right?"

She nodded slowly. "I never met your father, but I suppose you take after him. You have my sister's eyes, though. Green." 

Sirius appeared out of nowhere. "Petunia," he greeted her curtly. 

"Sirius Black I presume?" 

Mrs. Weasley shoo'ed the kids outside so the adults could talk. A table of snacks had been set up, and Harry and his friends happily munched their way through them while they caught each other up on their summers. 

Generally, at thirteen, they would all normally consider themselves too old for party games. But as most of them were only children, they spent a glorious two hours learning all the best magical party games from Ron, Fred, and George. 

Then, it was dinner time. The adults filtered outside to set up. Harry noticed that Remus had joined the group at some point, since he and Sirius were helping Mr. Weasley magically stretch the former snack table to fit everyone around it. Mrs. Weasley enlisted the kids in carrying out the various dishes, and then everyone could sit down and dig in. 

Harry found himself sitting between Neville and Hermione. He avoided Remus's gaze from across the table because he was a bit put out that he hadn't come to say hi when he arrived. 

"By the way, Neville, happy birthday. Sorry I was a bit late, I just had to finish something up before I could leave." 

"S'okay, Remus. And thanks!" 

Once everyone had eaten their fill, Mrs. Weasley fetched the cake. She was halfway through serving it when a large crack split the air not five feet from the table. Instantly, every adult wizard was on their feet. Aunt Petunia flung her arms in front of Dudley as if she could protect him from a magical threat with only her force of will. 

A house elf materialized in the garden. In fact, Harry recognized him as the same one who had tried to send him home from Hogwarts last year. And he wasn't alone. 

Draco Malfoy clutched the elf's small wrist in one hand and a small carpet bag in the other. He had a split lip and what looked like the beginnings of a black eye. He wore his school robes, which were considerably rumpled. 

"Draco?" Remus asked, alarmed.

"Oh good, we made it," Draco said weakly. 

“Dobby hates to ask at a bad time, but Master Draco promised…” 

Everyone watched in confusion as Draco let go of the elf and dropped his carpet bag. He then used his now free hands to loosen his tie enough to get it over his head and presented it to Dobby. 

“Thank you Master Draco! Dobby is a free elf at last!” Dobby burst into tears of joy and disapparated. 

“Excuse me, but what exactly is going on?” Hermione’s mother asked. Harry was glad he wasn’t the only one who was confused. 

“I promised Dobby clothes if he’d help me run away.” Draco’s voice was getting less steady. Harry nudged Remus, who also seemed to notice. 

“Let’s get Draco a chair and some food before we start interrogating him,” Remus half-ordered. 

Mrs. Weasley bustled off to make up a plate of leftovers while Sirius conjured a chair, which he placed between himself and Remus. Harry couldn’t help staring as Draco, usually the epitome of etiquette, wolfed down his plate of chicken and chips. Tentatively, Mrs. Weasley finished serving the cake. The party ate in silence, no doubt all wondering who would be the first one to question Draco. 

In the end, Harry broke the silence. “Why did you run away?” 

Draco stared at his plate. “Father and I argued.” His tone didn't exactly invite further questions. 

"Is this something you'd rather discuss in private?" Remus asked gently. When Draco nodded, the two of them left the table. 

"Let's do presents!" Mrs. Weasley attempted a cheerful tone. 

Harry felt very weird opening his birthday presents in front of a crowd, especially while Draco was clearly having a crisis just inside the house. Neville clearly also felt awkward, however, so at least he wasn't alone. 

And despite the awkwardness, Harry was genuinely happy when Neville opened the enchanted planter he'd gotten him. It was charmed to expand to fit the spatial needs of whatever plant was in it and glow blue when the plant needed watering. 

The party was starting to break up when Remus and Draco returned with McGonagall and Dumbledore in tow. Sensing it was a serious situation, Neville, Hermione, and Dudley's families said their hurried goodbyes. 

"We cannot make the boy return home, Albus. Arrangements must be made to house him for the rest of the summer," McGonagall appeared to be finishing an argument from earlier. 

"We're happy to have him here," Mrs. Weasley said. 

"Molly, I'm one of his father's biggest enemies. This is the first place he'll look." 

"Our house is protected, right Sirius?" Harry piped up. "Mr. Malfoy wouldn't find him there." 

"That's a good point, Harry." Remus looked impressed. 

"I'd like to stay with Remus, if I can." 

All eyes turned to Draco. He blushed. 

"It sounds as though the matter is settled, then," Mr. Weasley smiled. 

Harry caught a look that Sirius and Remus shared. He knew that look. It meant things were a lot more complicated than they wanted to let on, but that they weren't going to make a fuss just now. He figured it had to do with the upcoming full moon. 

They took Draco home with them shortly thereafter. Luckily, McGonagall was on hand to tell Draco the address of the cottage, since he couldn't gain access without the secret keeper. Harry's room was too small to share, so Remus and Sirius converted the living room into a space for Draco to sleep. 

Sharing his parents and his home with Draco was weird at first. It didn't help that Remus was no less busy than he had been before the party, because now his limited free time had to be divided between the two of them. Harry had always wanted a sibling, but now he wasn't so sure. 

Sirius eventually found a way to ease the building tension. It was unlikely that Mr. Malfoy would look for his son in the muggle world, so Sirius took the boys in day trips to muggle spaces. Harry found he enjoyed showing off the environment he grew up in to Draco. It probably saved their friendship. 

The other important hurdle for them to overcome was the full moon in mid August. Traditionally, McGonagall had watched Harry on transformation nights. But now, Harry argued, he and Draco were old enough to take care of themselves for one night. 

And would they tell Draco what was going on? He might be overcoming his learned prejudice toward muggle borns, but would he cast a fear of werewolves aside as easily? Being privy to this argument made Harry feel grown up. Eventually, he suggested that Sirius and Remus pretend to go on a romantic getaway since nobody knew whether Draco would be with them for more than one full moon. 

"You know how to floo call Minerva right?" 

"Yes Sirius." 

"And you'll call her at any sign of trouble?" 

"Yes Sirius." 

"Even if it's something small?" 

"Yes Sirius." 

"Even-" 

"Stop fretting, Pads," Remus laughed. 

"See you in two days," Harry smiled. "And have fun!" 

Harry and Draco spent the next two days watching too much TV and eating too much junk food. Draco was particularly enthralled by cartoons. He still couldn't get over how many muggle conveniences they had in their home. Harry explained, for what felt like the hundredth time, that Remus was a half blood and grew up with a lot of it around and that they spent a significant portion of Harry's childhood in close proximity to muggles. 

When Remus and Sirius arrived home, the former still a bit peaky but thankfully without any visible new scars, they seemed genuinely surprised to see the cottage still standing. Harry pretended to be insulted, but he knew it was a symptom of their constant worry over him.


	2. Two

Remus didn't realize quite how empty the cottage would feel until he returned from dropping off Harry, Sirius, and Draco at King's Cross. The three of them had taken a number of day trips without him over the past month, and he'd loved the peace and quiet, but now that they were really gone he missed the distractions from his work. 

He felt better knowing he could pursue his work while the boys were safe at Hogwarts, however. After a whole summer of research, he thought he might have located one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Now he was free to try and retrieve it without endangering anyone but himself. 

Since moving in with Sirius twelve years before, Remus had fallen a bit out of practice when it came to cooking. Sirius generally cooked when they were both home, and while teaching at Hogwarts Remus had eaten in the great hall. So Remus resigned himself to a bachelor's meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup from a can. He made a mental note to dedicate what little free time he had to reading Sirius's cookbooks. 

After his meager dinner, he poured himself a glass of wine and went over his notes again. 

"Tom Marvolo Riddle, born to Tom Riddle, muggle, and Merope Gaunt, witch, visits the town where his parents met during the summer between his sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts," he read out loud to himself. 

"He tells nobody that he went, and only two people remember seeing him: his mother's deranged brother and the Riddles' gardener. The next day, all three Riddles are dead and Junior is nowhere to be found. Morfin Gaunt was convicted based on circumstantial evidence and prior violence.

"When he returns to Hogwarts, Tom briefly wears an old fashioned ring. When asked about it, he tells people it was a family heirloom despite his being raised in a muggle orphanage. He stops wearing it shortly after Gaunt's death in Azkaban." 

Remus stopped reading briefly to rub his temples. "Sixteen years old and he was already capable of murdering his dad and grandparents, and framing his uncle for the deed. Christ." 

He stood, drained his glass, lit a fire in the hearth with his wand, and floo called Dumbledore. 

"Yes?" the old man answered. 

"I think I've found one. Or, I know where it is at least." 

"Excellent. When do you plan to retrieve it?" 

"Tomorrow." 

"So soon?" 

"Why wait?" 

Dumbledore nodded. "Bring the horcrux here when you have retrieved it." 

"Is that wise? To bring a piece of Voldemort's soul into Hogwarts? The last one nearly killed a lot of people, myself included." 

"That one was, I think, a special case. I have a theory I wish to test, and it is well worth the risk." 

"On your own head be it." 

Remus pulled his head out of the fire. Dumbledore must be mad. But then, by that logic, Remus must be mad to go along with it. And go along with it he would, if only because it would mean the horcrux wouldn't be his responsibility for very long. 

It was barely nine at night when Remus went to bed after reading over his notes once more. He missed his family, and he needed to be alert when he set off in the morning. He didn't sleep well. Without Sirius next to him their bed felt too big. Not to mention the stress dreams that plagued him when he _did_ finally manage to drift off. 

When he woke at five am, Remus accepted the inevitable and stumbled to the kitchen to make coffee. If he couldn't achieve alertness through enough sleep, he would through heavy caffeination. He watched the sunrise as he forced himself to eat breakfast. 

Little Hangleton. Remus reconstructed the village in his mind from the memory Dumbledore showed him last spring. What would it look like now? He gathered his wits and his wand, and disapparated. 

The village, it turned out, looked much the same as it had in the twenties. The main difference, Remus noted, was the increase in electric lights. He took a deep breath and set off along the same path the ministry wizard once had. 

If the Gaunts' shack looked run down in the memory, it was a ruin now. Remus was genuinely surprised he recognized it at all. Local teens had covered the rotting wood with graffiti and cigarette butts littered the ground around it. Mercifully, none of them were around now. 

Remus drew his wand and stepped inside. Where was it? He scanned what was left of the floor. In the middle of the room he spotted a small section of flooring that, though old, was clearly newer than the rest. 

Gingerly, so as to avoid falling through the floor, Remus made his way over. Under the floorboards sat an unobtrusive wooden box. He lifted the lid to reveal Marvolo Gaunt's ring. How could it be so easy? 

"It must be cursed," he whispered to himself. 

Touching the lid of the box hadn't harmed him, however, so he replaced it without touching the ring and gently picked up the box. When nothing happened, he sighed in relief. Then he apparated directly to Hogsmead. 

Dumbledore was there to greet him. Remus told him about finding the ring as they walked. When he'd finished his story, they completed the journey in silence. It was only after they'd entered Dumbledore's office when the headmaster spoke. 

"What do you know about goblin steel?" 

"That it's much better than anything humans can produce." 

"Any special properties in particular?" 

"It never needs to be cleaned." 

"And why is that?" 

"I imagine you're about to tell me." Remus was in no mood for mind games.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "It absorbs the properties of any substance it comes in contact with. Now, can you tell me what properties this sword may have recently acquired?" 

He produced the sword of Gryffindor. Remus stared at it. He imagined Harry holding it in his barely-pubescent fist, looking up at the basilisk, and shivered. 

"Basilisk venom?" 

"Exactly." 

"And why--oh hang on." He looked back and forth from the sword to the box containing the horcrux. "You mean?" 

Dumbledore nodded. He opened the box and tipped out the ring onto his desk. It glinted almost maliciously. 

"You should do it, I think." 

"Me?" 

"You found the horcrux, it is only right that you destroy it." 

Remus took a steadying breath and picked up the sword. He split the black stone with one smooth motion before he had time to second guess himself. The ring screamed as the fragment of Voldemort's soul inside it died. 

In the following silence, Dumbledore reached out to touch the ring. 

"Wait!" Remus cried. "I think it's cursed!" 

Dumbledore withdrew his hand. His expression was almost sheepish. "Of course. Can you forgive an old man his temptations?" 

"Yes sir." Remus had no idea what he was talking about. Rather than asking for clarification, however, he focused on trying to break the curse. 

It took some hours. The window that looked out at the castle grounds showed nothing but night before Remus was satisfied that the ring was now safe to touch. 

Dumbledore volunteered to test it. His preoccupation with the ring appeared to go far beyond horcruxes. He slipped it onto his left ring finger. Nothing happened, at least visibly. The headmaster seemed distracted as he told Remus he felt fine and dismissed him. Remus cautiously obeyed. 

It was late, and Remus's growling stomach alerted him to the fact that he hadn't eaten since breakfast, so instead of going home he set off in search of Sirius. He found him hunched over his desk, grading homework. His eyes lit up when he saw Remus. 

"What are you doing here?" 

Remus answered with a brief summary of his day. Sirius stood up and moved around the desk to hold Remus tightly when he got to the part about the screaming ring. 

"Let's get you something to eat, yeah?" 

"What about your grading?" 

"I can finish it later." 

Remus let himself be led into Sirius's flat and deposited on the couch. Sirius returned a moment later with a plate of warmed up leftovers and a glass of water. He refused to talk until Remus finished everything on his plate. 

"Do you need anything else?" 

"You." Remus didn't realize how true it was until he said it. This first experience destroying a horcrux may have gone as smoothly as possible, but it took more out of him than he thought. 

Sirius took Remus's plate and set it down on the coffee table. Then, he scooted over until he was close enough that Remus could lean his head on his shoulder and held his hand. 

"You're so brave." Sirius kissed the top of his head. 

Remus started to protest that he was merely doing what he had to do but Sirius cut him off. "I'm _serious_." 

Remus snorted. He couldn't help it; it was an old joke. They devolved into a fit of giggles.


	3. Three

"He was here and you didn't tell me?" 

"Harry, _I_ didn't know he was here until well after your curfew. And he left just after breakfast. I thought telling you would only upset you." 

It was lunchtime, and Harry stood at the staff table having a heated, whispered argument with Sirius. 

"You still could've told me! Even if there wasn't time to see him! If Dudley hadn't seen him leaving I never would've known!" 

"Please, Harry. People are staring. Come to the flat for dinner and we can talk then, yeah?" 

"Whatever." 

Harry stalked off to eat with his friends. It was completely unfair. He barely saw him all summer, and now on Remus's first visit to Hogwarts he didn't even stop to acknowledge Harry's presence. And Sirius tried to hide it from him! His parents' behaviour wasn't just unfair, it was downright rude and unlike them. 

When he joined his friends at the Gryffindor table--Percy Weasley had long since abandoned his attempts to stop Dudley, and now Draco, from sitting with them--Ron looked like he wanted to ask what was wrong. Hermione headed him off. 

"Professor Sinatra's already given us homework!" she cried.

"What? On the first day?" Neville asked. 

"You watch, I bet we get loads more. They really start piling it on in third year," Ron said glumly. 

Dudley glanced at Harry. "Think Sirius'll give us much?" 

Harry shrugged. He was too mad at Sirius to contemplate his potential teaching style.

After classes, Harry went to have his promised dinner with Sirius. His godfather apologized for not telling him about Remus's visit. Harry grudgingly accepted the apology. They briefly discussed the first two days of classes, and then he excused himself to do homework. 

Remus visited again a handful of times over the next two months, but Harry only ever got to see him for a couple minutes at a time. It was infuriating. Harry missed him terribly. 

One thing he had to look forward to, however, was his first ever Hogsmeade weekend at the end of October. He and his friends had mapped out their entire morning in order to maximize enjoyment and see everything. After lunch, Remus had promised to meet him for a dedicated afternoon of one on one time. 

It was a wonderfully chilly morning when the day arrived. Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione met Draco and Dudley in the entrance hall as they queued up to have their permission slips checked by Filch. Once clear, the six of them marched off to Hogsmeade in high spirits. 

They found it hard to stick to the schedule Hermione had drawn up, since at least one person wanted to linger in most of the shops. Zonko's joke shop and Honeydukes proved the most challenging to leave on time. At Harry's request, they skipped the shrieking shack altogether--he knew the real story. 

Finally, they stopped for lunch at the Three Broomsticks. The butterbeer was just as wonderful as everyone’s assorted older siblings and guardians had reported; only Draco had ever tried it before. 

"Where is he?" Harry glanced at his watch. Remus was supposed to meet up with them at half past one. It was now a quarter til. 

"Maybe he was held up?" Neville suggested. 

"I'm sure he'll be here soon," Hermione said gently. 

At two o'clock, they were still waiting. By a quarter past, Harry sent his friends on their way because he felt like he was preventing them from having fun. At first they protested, but in the end even Draco (who wanted to see Remus almost as badly as Harry) conceded. Dudley told him to come find them if Remus didn't show by three. 

Harry ordered a hot chocolate and drank it slowly to justify his remaining there. He checked his watch again. A quarter til three. Should he even bother staying the last fifteen minutes? He glanced at the door while he considered his options and did a double take. Remus stood there. Harry waved him over sullenly. 

"I'm so sorry I'm late, Harry," Remus said by way of greeting. 

"It's fine." Harry tried to keep the grumble out of his voice. He didn't want to chase Remus away now that he had him. 

Remus put a hand over one of Harry's. "No, it's not fine. I haven't been paying you nearly enough attention lately. My work is important, but my most important job is being here for you when you need me." 

The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Hogsmead. Harry told Remus all about the first few months of the school year, especially the quidditch match he hadn't been able to attend in which he almost knocked Cedric Diggory off his broom. 

While Remus willingly discussed Harry's stories, he fell silent every time Harry asked about his work. Harry was too happy to have Remus's undivided attention to care much, but he filed it away in the back of his mind. 

Harry hadn’t wanted to visit the Shrieking Shack with a group of friends who thought it was merely a haunted building, but he did visit it with Remus. The site of many a childhood bedtime story stood before them at last. 

“It’s smaller than I thought it would be.” 

“Sirius has a way of making his stories seem larger than life. I hope you’re not too disappointed that it’s just a regular old building.” 

“No, it’s nice to see where everything started with you and Sirius and my dad.” 

“And Pettigrew,” Remus sounded exhausted. 

“Him too.”

They met up with Harry's friends outside Honeydukes around five o'clock. Remus walked the group back to Hogwarts. Although everyone was excited to see their former teacher again, Draco was particularly happy to get the opportunity to talk to Remus. 

Harry let him monopolize the conversation because he understood how much Draco missed him. Remus planned to have dinner with Sirius, so Harry and Draco said goodbye to the others in the entrance hall and followed him to Sirius's flat for a family meal.


	4. Four

"I'm at a loss, Sirius." Remus lay on the couch with his head on Sirius's lap. 

"The first one was easy, so the rest probably seem impossible in comparison, but I know you can do it." 

"I was able to trace the ring through research, but the rest--Ugh!" 

Sirius stroked his hair. "Talk me through it love." 

"He made five horcruxes, right? He wanted six, to split his soul into seven, but he only managed five before he fell. The diary was number one, the ring was number two. So there are three left. Dumbledore and I think they're objects that belong to the Hogwarts founders: he certainly came into contact with two of them, both of which disappeared shortly after. But unlike the ring, there's no record of them ever again. No way of tracing them to a hiding spot." 

"You mean he didn't go around wearing Slytherin's locket looking like a great prat?" 

"No. In fact I think the last person who--Fuck!" Remus sat up so fast he almost banged his head on Sirius's chin. 

"You okay?" 

"Yeah. Yeah I just--I need my notes. I'll be right back." He gave Sirius a quick kiss and dashed over to the fireplace. 

After a frantic two minutes Remus was back on the couch, rifling through his notebook while Sirius provided emotional support. 

"There! Merope Gaunt sells Slytherin's locket to feed herself while pregnant. Shortly after she turns up at the orphanage where she dies giving birth to Tom Riddle Jr. Riddle comes across the locket years later while working for Borigin and Burke's. A few days later the locket's owner dies, the locket disappears, and Riddle hands in his notice." 

"You think he hid the locket at the orphanage?" 

"No, he hated it there. Besides, it's gone. Knocked down to build offices. But there's a connection here somewhere." 

He tore through the pages, determined to find it. Sirius gently took the notebook from his hands. Remus looked up and caught the worried look on his face. 

"What?" 

"Breathe, love. You're going to hurt yourself." 

"I need to find the horcruxes! It's the only way to stop Voldemort!" 

"They're not going anywhere fast. Just take one night off, for your health, and then you can get back at it." 

Remus was about to protest when Sirius kissed him, ending any arguments. One night couldn't hurt, he decided. Then he gave in to Sirius' affections. 

"Why so quiet?" Sirius asked sometime later. He was using Remus' stomach as a pillow and it tickled a bit when he spoke. 

"Just thinking." 

"About what?" 

"Stuff." 

He disentangled himself from the sheets so he could half sit up. "You're thinking about the locket, aren't you? I thought we'd talked about this." 

" _Talked_ isn't necessarily the word I'd use.” 

Sirius grinned unapologetically. 

"I did actually mean to take the night off. You're right, I do need a break. But I ended up thinking about it, and I think I know what to do next." 

"I'm glad, but you can continue that train of thought in the morning when you've rested." 

"Yessir," Remus chuckled. 

In the morning, he went to see Dumbledore to confirm his theories. They went over Remus's notes, and even delved back into the pensive briefly to double check. It was worth a shot, they decided. 

And that was how Remus found himself alone in a dark, seaside cave. He lit his wand and scanned the walls, searching. 

“The entrance must be--oh.” 

He produced a small silver knife and carefully drew a few drops of blood with it. He pressed the blade against the wall of the cave, which granted him entry into the chamber beyond. A great black lake lay before him, with a small island in the centre. This was, no doubt, where the horcrux was hidden. But how to get there?

Remus stood there in silence, thinking. He could sense traces of magic around him. Voldemort would need to leave a means of transportation somewhere in case he wanted to visit the horcrux. A boat, perhaps? It would have to be hidden.

He reached out in front of him, searching. There. A chain shot into his hand, which he pulled on until a boat appeared from the depths of the lake. He clambered in and the boat glided forward of its own accord. Looking down at the water was a mistake. There were bodies floating there, which Remus guessed must be inferi. Hopefully they would stay dormant, but somehow he doubted that would be the case.

On the middle of the island sat a pedestal with a basin of green liquid. The horcrux was presumably at the bottom. He tried vanishing the potion. No luck. He conjured a cup and tried scooping some out. That worked, but he found he couldn’t pour it out onto the ground. Did he have to drink it? 

He thought of Harry and Sirius. Gods, he missed them. “Forgive me my loves,” he whispered. Then he put the cup to his lips and drank. 

It burned like acid. He dipped the cup in again, and again, and again. He felt like he could drink no more, but the potion was only half gone. 

“Just one more cup, then you’ll be done,” he lied to himself. Each cupful increased the pain radiating out from his burning throat. An apparition of James, which he was only half convinced wasn’t real, stood before him. 

“You deserve this,” his friend sneered. “You let Lily and I down, Remus. You let us die.” 

“Please, no,” Remus pleaded. He struggled to force himself to drink another cup of the potion. 

“You didn’t stop Peter. You should have known he would betray us, but you did nothing.” 

Remus tried to ignore James. “You’re not real,” he whispered. There were approximately two more cups’ worth of potion in the basin. He dragged the next one to his lips. Some of it spilled down his front as he drank, blistering his skin. 

“And now look at you and Sirius, playing happy family with our son as though it never happened.” 

“You’re not real!” Remus cried again as he scooped up the last of the potion. He threw it back like a shot even though it was the most painful thing he’d ever experienced. Through the pain, he remembered to grab the locket from the basin. The image of James vanished. It was replaced by a new burning in Remus’s throat, different from the acidity of the potion. 

“Water,” he rasped. He gathered what remained of his wits and tried to conjure water. It disappeared as soon as he brought the cup to his lips. Horror broke through the fog of pain. He would have to drink the lake water. 

Remus gripped the cup tightly in his hand and dipped it into the lake. The inferi were upon him before he even had a chance to slake his thirst. They dragged him into the water. He didn’t have the strength to fight back.

“Goodbye Harry. Goodbye Sirius. I love you,” he croaked just before his head went under. He closed his eyes; he would rather not watch his own impending doom.

Then he felt himself being wrenched from the inferi’s grasp and flung with a wet slap into the boat. The lake boiled with the inferi’s rage as the boat shot back to land. Remus opened his eyes and caught the silhouette of a cat so scrawny it may as well have been a skeleton. Then he fainted. 

When Remus came to, he found himself in bed in Sirius’s flat at Hogwarts. Sirius sat in a chair facing him, looking even more worried--if possible--than he had after Remus had been petrified last spring. He jumped when he noticed that Remus was awake. 

“Sirius,” Remus whispered. “I love you.” 

“Oh, good. He’s alive,” a slimy voice drawled. Remus forced himself to sit up and discovered the voice belonged to Snape. 

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Saving your ungrateful life. How could you be so stupid as to drink that potion _yourself_?” 

Remus ignored him. “Did I get it?” he asked Sirius. 

Sirius looked grave. He picked up the locket from the bedside table and, to Remus’ surprise, opened it. A small piece of paper floated out. Remus grabbed it.

“I went through all of that for a fake? And who is RAB?” 

“Dumbledore is trying to figure that out as we speak. The only RAB I know of was Regulus, but he can’t have-” 

The door to the room creaked open. An animal that was more skin and bones than cat padded in. So Remus _hadn’t_ hallucinated the cat. 

“What-?” Snape began. The cat sat up on its hind legs, and suddenly it was a person. 

Sirius jumped to his feet, wand out. “Regulus?” he shouted. 

“Surprise, big brother,” Regulus rasped. For it was indeed Sirius’s little brother, though Remus barely recognized him. He was older, for one thing, and so thin he could almost pass for a corpse. 

“How the _fuck_ are you alive?” 

“It’s a bit of a long story. Do you have anything to eat? I’d rather not say what I’ve been living off for the last decade.”


	5. Five

Harry was quite angry that their little tradition of staying at Hogwarts over winter break was cancelled. 

“We already have a house, why do we have to spend Yule cleaning up a new one?” he protested when Sirius broke the news to him. 

“Technically, number twelve Grimmauld Place is an old house. And winter break is the only time I have to help clean it out. It’s been empty for several years now, who knows what’s happened since my mother died.” 

“But why do you have to clean it out at all? We’re not going to be living there are we?” 

“Not if I can help it. But Uncle Regulus will be, and he’s in no condition to put the house to rights all by himself at the moment.” 

“Where did he come from, anyway?” 

“He was, er, in hiding.” 

Harry didn’t really buy the story that Sirius’ brother had suddenly decided to come out of hiding of his own accord, especially since he was so sickly, but he knew he wasn’t going to get the real story out of Sirius anytime soon. He was being extraordinarily tight-lipped on the situation. Perhaps it had something to do with Remus' secret work. 

And so on the first day of the holiday Harry took the Hogwarts Express back to London with Sirius. Remus met them at the platform and the three of them walked to the Black ancestral home together. The closer they got to their destination, the more uncomfortable Sirius looked. Harry didn't blame him; he'd long ago heard the story of how Sirius ran away from home at sixteen. 

Number twelve Grimmauld Place was a gloomy townhouse in a corner of London that looked like it would be grey even on a sunny afternoon. Regulus opened the door when Remus knocked. It had been a month since Harry first met him, and though he was obviously still recovering his face looked a bit less gaunt. He led them into a hallway that was dark despite the best efforts of the candelabra hanging from the high ceiling. 

A house elf, who wore a towel like a toga, scuttled up to them. He took Harry and Remus' coats quietly, but stopped dead in front of Sirius. 

"Master Sirius has come back at last, after what he did to his poor mother's heart?" he sneered. 

Sirius glowered down at him and opened his mouth, about to speak. Regulus cut across him. 

"Kreacher, that is not how you will address any member of our family." 

The house elf nodded demurely and smacked himself on the forehead. 

"Now, Kreacher, will you please make lunch while I show our guests to their rooms?" 

Kreacher brightened and bustled off into a room at the far end of the hall. Regulus led the way up the stairs. He stopped at the first landing to point out his room, should anyone need him at night. Sirius's childhood bedroom was on the next landing, as was an old guest room. 

"Sirius, I assume you'll want to be in here. We'll put Harry across from you so you can keep an eye on him. Now, Remus-" Regulus made to start up the next flight, but paused when he noticed nobody was following him. 

"Is there a problem?" 

"He doesn't need a separate room," Sirius said evenly. 

"There's no reason to pack you in like sardines; we have lots of space." 

"I appreciate the offer, Regulus, but I assure you I'm quite used to sharing a room with Sirius," Remus laughed. 

Harry recognized that laugh. It was the weird polite laugh adults do when they're trying to pretend they're not offended by something. Regulus still looked a bit confused. Why were they dancing around the issue?

"Uncle Regulus, don't you know they're a couple?" 

By the look on his face, Harry guessed that Regulus may have suspected but certainly didn't know for sure. Until now. 

"Oh. I didn't- I mean I didn't mean to-" he floundered. 

Sirius looked annoyed, while Remus's face showed mild concern. Harry decided to leave the adults to sort it out themselves. He grabbed his trunk and dragged it into the guest room to unpack. Muffled shouting erupted behind the closed door and then was abruptly cut off. Harry suspected that someone, probably Remus, had cast a silencing charm to prevent him from hearing the adults argue. 

The whole house gave off an air of faded decadence. Harry guessed that the green, silver, and black decor might've looked impressive once, but now it just cast a gloom over everything. Even the painting in his bedroom was empty, unless it was supposed to be a rather fancy portrait of an uncomfortable-looking chair. 

Sirius appeared to have worked out a truce over whatever his problem with Regulus was by the time they all sat down to lunch. Kreacher served soup and sandwiches before disappearing off to another task. Everyone silently dug in. 

"So, Harry, I hear you're on your house's quidditch team," Regulus said diplomatically.

"Yeah. I’m seeker." 

"Really? I was the seeker for Slytherin for a few years when I was at Hogwarts." 

"Cool." 

Harry wasn’t really sure what to make of Regulus. Sirius hadn’t ever talked about him before he suddenly reappeared--aside from a brief mention that Regulus had been his parents’ favourite child. Regulus didn’t strike him as particularly evil, though, just a bit weird.

After lunch, the cleaning began. Since Regulus had stuck to the essential rooms upon his arrival, they weren't quite sure what magical pests infested the house. Harry felt quite put out when, instead of sharing in the adventure, he got sent up to his room to read. He was thirteen and they were treating him like a little kid! 

Feeling rather lonely, Harry wished he’d stayed with Draco at Hogwarts over break. Sirius and Remus had explained that they couldn’t bring him along to Grimmauld Place because it might cause Mr. Malfoy to pursue legal action against them. He still didn’t know who’d taken Draco in over the summer, but it would be harder to hide now. Years ago they’d gotten away with kidnapping Harry, but it was unlikely they would be as successful if the issue was forced this time around.

Harry didn’t even have Spot to talk to. She was in her winter brumation cycle, so he’d left her in Draco’s care. He hoped Draco would remember to change her water daily; it was easy to forget when she only woke up for a few minutes every few days. 

Remus came to collect him at dinner time. His left hand was wrapped in a handkerchief, suggesting an injury of some kind. 

"Are you okay?" Harry asked. 

"This? Oh it's just a little bite. I surprised a mouse, I'm afraid." 

“What about rabies?” 

Remus chuckled. “We’ve got everything under control, thanks, Doctor Potter.”

They were just about to sit down to dinner when the doorbell rang, causing pandemonium. Harry followed the adults upstairs. A painting of an old woman was ranting about Sirius being in her house. Harry didn’t recognize some of the words she used, but they didn’t sound like compliments. Remus pointed his wand at the painting and curtains closed over it, silencing her. 

"Who was that?" Harry asked.

"Our mother,” Regulus and Sirius said in unison. Harry picked up on a subtle difference in their tones, but he wasn’t quite sure what it meant.

Sirius opened the door to reveal a group of people. At the front stood McGonagall, though she was the only one Harry recognized. 

"Let us in before we're noticed," she hissed. 

Sirius didn't move. "What present did you give Harry for his second birthday?" 

"Tartan pajamas." 

Harry blushed.

"Correct," Sirius grinned. He stood aside and everyone trooped into the hallway. 

"We were just about to have dinner," Remus said. "Care to join us?" 

"We'll have to scramble a bit to feed everyone," Regulus grumbled under his breath as Remus led the way to the kitchen. 

He summoned Kreacher and explained that dinner would have to be stretched. The elf nodded and jumped right to work. 

"Who are all these people?" Harry whispered to Sirius. 

"The Order of the Phoenix."


	6. Six

Although it felt good to be surrounded by the Order once again, Remus couldn't help but notice the gaps left by those who were no longer with them. James and Lily, particularly, and of course Peter. He let the dinner conversation wash over him for the most part, paying more attention to Harry who was being uncharacteristically shy. 

After dinner it was decided that they would pick up cleaning the room that had been started that morning. Remus elected to entertain Harry instead. He could tell that Harry was still a bit sore about how little attention he'd been paid over the last several months and he wanted to make up for it if he could. 

They were halfway through their third game of chess when Sirius burst into the kitchen. "Remus you're needed downstairs." 

"What is it?" He jumped up immediately. 

"Something that requires your expertise," Sirius said with a pointed but discrete nod at Harry who looked both scared and annoyed.

"Sorry, Harry. We'll have to finish the game later." 

"I'll play for you," Sirius took Remus’ vacated seat.

Remus made his way to the drawing room alone. The first thing he saw when he entered was Regulus clutching a gold locket with a wild expression on his face. His blood ran cold. 

"Is that-?" 

"Yes." 

"Somebody get Dumbledore." 

"Minerva's already doing that," Kingsley said. 

Sure enough, Dumbledore arrived a moment later. He held the sword of Gryffindor. 

"Regulus should do it," Remus heard himself say when Dumbledore offered him the sword. "This battle is his." 

Regulus took the sword as though he was being handed a hangman's noose. 

"Let us give him some space," Dumbledore suggested. Everyone trooped out of the room and waited behind the door. 

"What's so special about this locket, Albus?" Dedalus Diggle asked. McGonagall shushed him. 

Everything was silent for a minute. Then a metallic clang rang out, accompanied by a scream Remus recognized. A few moments later Regulus opened the door, sword in one hand and the mangled remains of Slytherin's locket in the other. 

Dumbledore took the sword and former horcrux from him and turned to leave. "Thank you, Regulus." 

Regulus nodded shakily. He looked like he’d aged ten years. 

"I believe that's enough cleaning for tonight," McGonagall announced. Some of the Order members left with Dumbledore, while the others stayed for a nightcap. Regulus declined to join the others for drinks and shut himself up in his room after asking Kreacher to help their guests with whatever they needed.

"Three down," Sirius said later as the two of them got ready for bed. 

"Two to go," Remus replied grimly. 

"Yes, well, we can worry about those later." 

Sirius climbed into bed and wrapped his arms around him. Remus relaxed into the embrace. He looked at the posters and banners covering every square centimeter of the green walls. 

"So this is teenage Sirius' bedroom, eh?" 

"You like it?" 

"Oh yes, especially that one," he pointed to a faded muggle poster depicting a beach scene mostly filled with attractive young women in bathing suits. 

Sirius blushed. "It was mostly to bother my parents. And the girls covered up the fact that I bought it to look at Elton John." 

"He is nice to look at, isn't he." 

"Not half as much as you. Imagine telling teenage Sirius that one day he'd get to share this bed with Remus Lupin." 

Remus laughed and kissed him. "I think you'd find it would be an even bigger shock for teenage Remus." 

Over the next few weeks they spent almost every day cleaning up number twelve Grimmauld Place with the help of whichever Order members were free at the time. The one exception was Yule itself, where they had a quiet family celebration. Remus tried not to think about Draco left alone at Hogwarts over the holiday. 

He was glad to see Harry and Regulus bond over the time that they spent together. It was good for Harry to get to know a relative since he had so few. Come to think of it, it was probably good for Regulus to get to know a relative too. He’d spent so many years alone in that cave with only inferi and his own thoughts. Harry's presence definitely eased the tension between Sirius and his brother, for which Remus was grateful. 

With Remus and Sirius' blessing (and financial support), Regulus even bought Harry a new racing broom for Yule. The Firebolt was the newest model and far outstripped Harry's Nimbus. Unfortunately Harry couldn't test it in London, but he promised to write Regulus as soon as he'd tried it on the Hogwarts quidditch pitch. 

By the time the full moon came on the 28th, Remus felt reasonably confident in leaving Harry with Regulus for the night. When he and Sirius arrived at number twelve the next morning, Remus was just aware enough to smile at the sight of Harry teaching Regulus to make chocolate chip pancakes before Sirius put him to bed. When he awoke there was a stack of leftover pancakes waiting for him on the bedside table. 

The gloomy old townhouse had even started to feel a bit homey by the time break ended and everyone had to return to real life. Remus promised to come help Regulus continue with the cleaning when he could before seeing Harry and Sirius safely onto the Hogwarts Express and returning to the empty cottage. The break had been helpful, but he still had horcruxes to hunt.


	7. Seven

Harry found Draco in the library when he got back from break. He couldn’t make out the title of the book his friend was reading, but it must’ve been interesting because he was engrossed in it.

“How was your holiday?” 

Draco jumped at the sound of Harry’s voice. “It was quite boring, really. Except for mother’s constant letters asking me to come home.” 

“Did you write back?” 

“No. It’s better to ignore her or she’ll never give up. But I read all of them. Thanks for the book, by the way. Muggle ideas about magic are fascinating. I read it in about a day." 

"Glad you liked it! Let me know if you want to borrow the sequel." 

As the term began and everyone settled into a routine, Harry continued to worry about Draco. He seemed more withdrawn than usual. Even testing out Harry's new broom didn't get the same level of a reaction as it might once have done. 

Harry wrote to Remus about his concerns, and on his next visit to Sirius the four of them had dinner together. Remus had a private chat with Draco while Harry assisted Sirius in the kitchen. Draco seemed a little perked up at dinner, but by the end of the week he was quiet again. 

"I'm worried about Draco," Harry told Ron, Hermione, and Neville as they did homework in front of the Gryffindor common room fire. 

"He does seem down, doesn't he?" Hermione said. "I wonder if there's anything we can do for him?" 

"Well dinner with Remus and Sirius only seemed marginally helpful." 

"What he needs," Ron said with a nod at the table where Fred and George sat, "is a really good prank." 

"I don't think pranking him will help," Neville worried. 

"No, no, no; that's not what I said. He needs to prank someone else." 

"Like who?" 

"Whom." 

"Sorry Hermione. Like whom?" 

Ron thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "What about Sirius? I reckon he'd take it well." 

"For Sirius it would have to be the mother of all pranks." 

"That's the idea." 

Harry wrote to Regulus to thank him for the firebolt and ask for ideas about how to prank Sirius. Regulus replied with plenty of information about what Sirius was like before Hogwarts that was sure to help them plan. 

To nobody’s surprise, Draco was immediately on board with the idea of pranking Sirius. He had a flair for the dramatic that he usually kept under wraps, and threw himself into planning with Weasley-like fervor. 

Meanwhile, quidditch proved a mighty distraction. The Gryffindor team was flying at the top of their game this year, and Oliver was determined that nothing would stop them from winning the cup. 

Harry spent most of his free time in practice when Oliver was able to book the pitch. He had to fight for time with the other captains, especially Marcus Flint from Slytherin, who were also desperate for a chance to win. 

As the likelihood of a Gryffindor vs. Slytherin final match became more prominent, a friendly rivalry developed between Harry and Draco. It helped bring Draco a bit further out of his funk, though it caused Dudley much distress since as a Hufflepuff he wasn't sure whose side he should be on. 

The rivalry between the rest of their respective team members, however, was firmly unfriendly. Harry was proud of the Gryffindor team for restricting their expressions of displeasure to nasty looks in the corridors, but the Slytherins played dirty. They even managed to get away with attempting to hex a couple of Harry's teammates directly in front of Snape, though McGonagall witnessed one attempt and put the culprit in detention before you could say "quaffle". 

It surprised, and rather worried, Harry that the Slytherins were already reaching new heights of unsportsmanlike conduct several weeks before the match. Draco confided in him that he was worried about it as well, especially because his team saw him as a traitor for not joining in on the cruelty. 

"They might kick me off the team if we lose!" 

"They can't do that, though. Can they?" 

"Not outright. But when they hold tryouts next year I simply won't make the team. They only let me on in the first place because my father bought all those new brooms." 

"If they try it we'll go to Dumbledore." 

"How Gryffindor of you." 

"Thanks for the compliment."


	8. Eight

Remus found himself visiting Sirius more and more as the horcruxes' trail went cold. By late March, McGonagall had already accused him of moving into the castle. He justified most of his visits by having frequent meetings with Dumbledore, in which they agonized over every detail of every horcrux-related memory in the headmaster's collection, but really he just hated being alone. 

And Sirius was clearly happy to have him visit. 

"I never realized teaching was this hard!" Sirius threw his hands in the air. Unfortunately, he clipped the stack of essays in front of him and sent them flying. 

"There's a reason muggles make you go to uni for it, Pads." Remus laughed and righted the scattered papers with a flick of his wand. 

"Yeah well you made it look so easy." 

"Stop pouting and grade." 

"What if I like pouting?" 

Remus kissed Sirius and then picked up their dishes from dinner. "You can pout all you like _after_ your homework is done." 

After washing up, he found where he'd left his book and continued reading on the couch where he couldn't distract Sirius. The hunt for horcruxes had sent him down increasingly weird research paths, and this particular book was so grim that it was hard to focus on the words for very long. 

He'd just found his place on the page when someone pounded on the door to the flat. Remus let Sirius get it, but put down the book and listened in case he was needed. Harry's distressed voice sent him catapulting towards the door.

"We need your help!" Harry panted as though he'd ran up several flights of stairs to get there. 

"What's wrong?" Remus and Sirius chorused. 

"Come and see!" 

Harry took off. Remus shared a worried look with Sirius and then followed. He led them to a closed classroom door, which he opened and then slammed behind them. 

Ron stood with his back to the window, face white enough that his freckles stood out. Hermione sat in the fetal position on a desk; she had her wand trained on the floor. 

"What's wrong?" Sirius repeated. 

Harry pointed. A white ferret sat in the middle of the room. It was chewing on a green and silver tie. A wand lay next to it. _Draco's_ wand. 

Sirius winced. He hated ferrets.

"We were practicing for transfiguration and Draco messed up the spell," Ron explained, ears going red. 

"And I can't get him to change back!" Hermione's voice was at least an octave higher than normal. 

"Everyone calm down," Remus soothed. “We’ll have Draco back in no time.”

He pointed his wand at the ferret, envisioning Draco as he normally was. Nothing happened. He tried again. Then he tried a different spell. 

"I'm going to get Minerva," Sirius said. 

Remus kept trying, but the ferret stayed a ferret. Hermione buried her face in her hands. 

"Don't cry, Hermione. We'll get Draco right as rain, I promise." 

Sirius arrived with McGonagall. She waved her wand experimentally, then allowed herself a rare laugh. Remus stared at her. 

"Your problem, Remus," she smiled, “is that this is in fact a normal ferret." 

Draco jumped out from behind the curtain Ron had been blocking from full view and shouted "April Fool's!" 

The kids devolved into peals of laughter. Remus caught Sirius' eye and grinned. "We've been had, Pads!" 

"Good one," Sirius admitted. 

Remus wasn't sure who to cheer for when, as Sirius' guest, he attended the quidditch final. Normally he would cheer for Gryffindor, but he also felt a paternal obligation to support Draco's team, too. 

He and Sirius sat with the boys' friends in the Gryffindor stands, but he clapped politely when either team scored and cheered loudly when Harry or Draco made a particularly interesting maneuver. His support for Draco drew a few stares from surrounding students. 

As the Gryffindor chasers scored goal after goal, the Slytherin team began employing astonishingly dirty tactics. Remus was proud that Draco abstained from such behaviour, though he worried it might incite the ire of his teammates. 

The game ended with a final score of 320-20 in favour of Gryffindor. The stands around Remus emptied as the students rushed to raise the team on their shoulders. He and Sirius stood and shouted their congratulations but made no attempt to tangle with the surging crowd around their son. They could see him later, once his classmates were finished with him. 

In the meantime, there was Draco to attend to. Harry had told them about Draco’s dilemma, and Remus wanted to make sure he was okay. He found the boy booking it towards the castle, still in his quidditch uniform. 

“I couldn’t face the changing rooms,” he explained when Remus caught up to him. 

“Do you want me to talk to Severus? He might be able to shield you from the worst of it.” 

“No thanks. I shouldn’t be in any danger once they’ve blown off some steam. Tattling to a teacher would only make it worse.” 

Remus was unconvinced, but he respected Draco’s wishes. He did, however, tell Sirius to keep an even sharper eye on him than usual.


	9. Nine

After the previous two years, Harry found it weird that they made it to the end of the school year without any major catastrophes. 

Well, there was _one_. 

"What do you mean you're not teaching next year?" 

"Harry, I told you. I'm just not cut out for teaching. I only took the job to protect you in the first place." 

"And I don't need protection now?" 

"Dumbledore has someone lined up to teach next year who I trust with my life." 

"Who is it?" 

"You'll see." 

“I’m sick of all these secrets!” 

“Do you solemnly swear not to tell anyone else?” 

Harry rolled his eyes. “Obviously.” 

“Next year Mad-Eye Moody will be your defense against the dark arts teacher.” 

It was the best summer Harry'd had in years. 

Somehow, McGonagall fixed it so that Draco could stay with them again. There was a bit of awkwardness when they had to explain to him that Remus was a werewolf, but Draco bounced back from the revelation much faster than anyone expected. Harry suspected he might have worked it out by himself beforehand. The morning after the first full moon of the summer, he woke up extra early to make sure that a full English breakfast was ready for Remus’ return. That was the day Harry started to truly think of Draco as a brother.

Remus seemed determined to make up for last summer by spending more time with the family, so the four of them went on a number of glorious adventures. They were once again confined to the muggle world, but that didn’t prevent them from making some truly spectacular memories.

But no matter how much fun he was having, Harry spent a lot of time yearning for their upcoming trip to the Quidditch world cup. Ron’s family had gotten really good tickets from one of Mr. Weasley’s work friends, and Sirius paid for tickets for Neville, Dudley, and Hermione to come along as well. 

Finally the day arrived. Harry, Sirius, Remus, and Draco met everyone else outside the Burrow unreasonably early and they all walked to a nearby hill. Remus explained the concept of a portkey as they walked. When they reached the spot, they found Cedric Diggory--a boy Harry had played against in Quidditch the year before--and his father. 

The adults went through the process of introductions, since Sirius and Remus had never met Mr. Diggory before, and then it was time to go. Everyone touched the portkey while Mr. Weasley counted down from ten, and then they were instantaneously transported to the site of the Quidditch world cup. The unpleasant sensation reminded Harry of side-along apparition. 

They parted ways with the Diggorys as they followed the officials’ directions to their campsites. Remus handled paying the muggle site director since he understood muggle money the best out of the three adults. Their group had two adjoining sites, which gave them plenty of space for the three tents. 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sent to fetch water. It took some time, but the tents were still only half pitched when they returned. Mr. Weasley was arguing with Fred about how unfair it was that the girls got a whole tent to themselves. 

“How about Sirius and I put up Ron, Dudley, and Neville?” Remus interjected calmly. “That should give you all some more room to stretch out.” 

“Is your tent big enough?” Mr. Weasley asked, trying and failing to mask his relief. 

“It should be. We had an idea that it might need to sleep more than four when we bought it.” 

“Will that satisfy you Fred?” 

Fred shrugged, loath to admit defeat so easily, so the adults considered the matter settled. The tents went up the rest of the way. Harry and Draco gave everyone a tour of their tent. They’d gone with Sirius and Remus to pick it out the week before and were very proud of it. It had a state of the art kitchen, a double bed, and three sets of bunk beds--all things Harry was pretty sure muggle tents didn’t have based on Dudley and Hermione’s reactions.

The Weasley’s tents, borrowed from another of Mr. Weasley’s coworkers, appeared to be older versions of the same model. Their cooker looked like it’d been cutting edge in about 1967, and the tents smelled faintly of cats, but everything seemed cozy enough. 

The ban on visible magic meant they needed to get a cooking fire going straight away if they intended to have lunch and, after watching Mr. Weasley struggle with matches for a few minutes, Dudley surprised them all by setting up and lighting a perfect campfire. 

“Mum made me join cub scouts when I was little,” he mumbled. 

Harry found himself growing more impatient with every hour that passed. The problem with arriving so early, he discovered, was that you had to find something to do to pass the time before the event actually started. 

At least Remus had come prepared with a deck of non-magic cards. They weren’t as exciting as exploding snap, but watching Dudley try to teach the purebloods muggle card games helped wile away the hours. 

Shortly before the game started, vendors appeared among the campsites. Harry and his friends had a glorious time spending their pocket money on quidditch-themed merchandise. Sirius made sure Remus had Mr. Weasley distracted before buying a pair of omnioculars for each of Harry’s friends, plus Ginny and the twins, so they could follow the game better. Bill insisted on paying for his own, as well as Charlie and Percy’s. 

Their seats were in the top box. Harry, who had attended a few muggle concerts with Sirius as a child, took a minute to realize that these were actually the best seats in the stadium. Ministry officials and foreign dignitaries sat all around them, as did a house elf who turned out to be saving a seat for Mr. Crouch--the head of the department for magical cooperation. 

It was the most spectacular game of quidditch Harry'd ever witnessed, and he couldn't wait to try out some of the moves on his own broom, but what he remembered most, afterward, about that night was what happened several hours later. 

Remus woke him while it was still dark and told him to put on his jacket. Once outside the tent, he and the other kids were shepherded toward the woods by Remus while Sirius, Mr. Weasley, Percy, Bill, and Charlie charged off in the other direction. Harry glanced back and saw a crowd of hooded figures marching through the tents. Three muggles levitated over them. 

"Harry, come on!" Remus called. 

Harry hurried after them. He noticed the house elf from earlier struggling toward the woods. It looked like she had an invisible hand trying to drag her in the opposite direction.

Remus didn't stop until their group was alone, deep in the woods. 

"Everyone still here?" 

"Yes."

"Wait where's Neville?" 

"Here!" 

"Yeah we're all here." 

"Remus, what's going on?" 

"I don't know, Harry. Nothing good." 

"I think I do." Draco was even paler than usual. "I'd bet anything that those are some of father's old war buddies. They probably got drunk and decided to do a spot of muggle baiting like in the old days." 

Dudley and Hermione huddled closer to the group. 

In the trees, a harsh voice mumbled something and there was a flash of light. A huge skull and snake shone above them. In the glittering green light, Harry caught the look of absolute fear that flashed across Remus' face before he composed himself. 

Ministry officials appeared out of nowhere and sent stunning spells flying in every direction. There was a lot of shouting. Mr. Weasley turned up at one point, followed a minute later by Mr. Crouch. Even more shouting followed. Harry tuned out most of it, but he noticed when they searched the woods and found the house elf holding a wand. 

"That's my wand!" Harry said in surprise. All eyes turned to him. A man started to shout at him, but Remus and Mr. Weasley jumped to his defense. 

Eventually, they were all allowed to return to the tents. After a few short hours of sleep, they broke camp and took the first portkey out of there to beat the rush.


	10. Ten

Putting Harry and Draco on the train to school was especially bittersweet this year. Harry going off to school was nothing new, but for the past two years he’d had either Remus or Sirius in the castle with him. Remus was glad that he wouldn’t have to live alone again this year, but he was irrationally worried about how Harry would fare without parental protection. 

“Mad-Eye will protect him,” Sirius soothed as they waved at the rapidly disappearing train.

“How did you know that’s what I was thinking about?” 

“Because it’s exactly what I was thinking about. C’mon, let’s get home.” 

Sirius accidentally made a huge lunch, which he chalked up to wanting to eat his feelings. Remus knew he was just used to cooking for a family of four and forgot to adjust the recipe. And they were a family of four now. Draco was almost as much their son as Harry was. The only difference was time and legal recognition.

The house was too quiet with the boys gone, so Sirius turned his muggle stereo up to a ridiculous volume while Remus read. He felt like he’d dropped the ball on the horcrux search in the last few months, and was determined to get back to work with a renewed vigor. He and Dumbledore were convinced there were two left, and they had a good idea of what at least one of them might be. 

“Now if only I could find it,” he muttered to himself. 

They had a late dinner consisting of leftovers and good wine, which was interrupted by an urgent owl from Mr. Weasley. He’d overheard from one of his ministry friends that there’d been a sighting of Peter in Albania earlier in the summer. 

“Why the fuck didn’t they tell us?” Sirius growled. 

“We’d better write Minerva. It’s too late to do much else, he’ll be far away from there by now. Where was it exactly?” 

“Can’t pronounce it.” He showed him the letter. 

“Gods, wasn’t that the last place that ministry witch was seen before everyone lost track of her?” 

“You don’t think it’s connected?”

“Without knowing the dates it could just be a coincidence, but I’m including it in my letter.” 

Remus woke the next morning to three owls sitting on the kitchen table. McGonagall’s owl carried her response that she would get Dumbledore to talk to the minister about the Pettigrew situation and ask why none of them had been informed. 

The other two had letters from Harry and Draco. Remus could tell from their extra-messy handwriting that both boys were quite excited. Hogwarts would be hosting a once in a lifetime event. 

“The Triwizard Tournament? Is Dumbledore fucking crazy?” 

“Absolutely batshit, I’m sure,” Remus chuckled nervously. What was Dumbledore thinking? “At least there are more safety rules this time. Harry and Draco won’t be able to enter.” 

“Nobody should be able to compete. At least one kid has died every time the tournament is held!” 

“I know.”

October came upon them much faster than Remus expected. He’d made little progress on his horcrux hunt in that time, in part because Dumbledore was busy with last minute preparations for the tournament. All Remus wanted was to destroy the last of Voldemort’s ties to power so he could keep Harry safe, especially since the Ministry still hadn’t provided any new updates on Pettigrew. Had Peter found his old master?

As was their usual habit, Remus and Sirius visited James and Lily on Halloween. Remus laid flowers on their friends’ final resting place while Sirius gave them a rundown of Harry’s accomplishments over the past year. 

“Oh, and he’s got a brother now,” Sirius finished his monologue. “I’m not sure which one of you he got the habit of picking up strays from, but Harry and Remus discovered old Lucius Malfoy’s boy needed a better family so Draco’s ours now.” 

“You’d like him,” Remus addressed the headstone. “Especially you, Lily.” 

McGonagall arriving in their living room on Halloween was also becoming a bit of an alarming tradition. She was already there when they stumbled in from their post-graveyard drinks with Regulus. 

“Oh no,” Sirius groaned. “Not tonight.” 

“What’s wrong?” Remus asked. 

McGonagall looked grave. “Harry’s been made Hogwarts champion.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“I thought you had to be seventeen to enter?” 

“Someone hoodwinked the goblet of fire into accepting the sole entrant from a fourth school.” 

“And that entrant was Harry?” 

She nodded. “The magical contract is binding; Harry has to compete. I suspect that whoever did this is trying to get him killed.”


	11. Eleven

Harry really, really hated being the second Hogwarts champion. The constant attention was exhausting. Slightly less than half the school supported him and the other half hated him. The only constant between the two groups was that nobody believed he hadn't put his name in the goblet of fire. 

Well, not nobody. Sirius, Remus, the handful of other adults in his life, and most of his close friends believed him. The trouble was, _most_ certainly didn't mean _all_. 

Draco was initially angry with him for not sharing the secret of getting past the age line, but eventually Remus brought him around. Ron, on the other hand, couldn't be convinced by _anyone_. 

And then there was the whole Rita Skeeter debacle. She'd published a horrific article about Harry that misquoted him in spectacular fashion. Luckily, Sirius and Remus were there to advocate for him and had her banished from Hogwarts. But they couldn't stop the damage the article had done to his reputation among his classmates, or how it had increased Ron's resentment.

The first task he would have to perform was a secondary concern, right up until it wasn't. Hagrid secretly showed Harry the dragons being unloaded, and suddenly it all felt a lot more real. 

Harry didn't know what to do. Normally, this was the kind of thing he would discuss with his parents. But he didn't really want to tell them he'd cheated, even by accident. And then there was the matter of Cedric. Harry was pretty sure the champions from the other schools knew, but Cedric probably didn't. 

That, at least, was a problem he could solve on his own. He caught up to Cedric on his way to class and made sure they were alone by magically splitting Cedric's bag from behind. He told him that the task would be getting past dragons, then hurried away. 

Unfortunately, he walked straight into Professor Moody, who marched him over to his office. The defense against the dark arts office looked entirely different from how it had under Remus and Sirius. Moody caught him staring and explained the dark wizard catching devices briefly. Then the conversation turned to the inevitable.

"Please don't tell Sirius and Remus I know what the task is!" Harry blurted. "I don't want them to think I've been cheating, even though it wasn’t on purpose!" 

"Now why would I do that?" 

"Because they said you're keeping an eye on me for them since you were all in the Order together." 

"That was a decent thing you just did, Potter. I won't tattle to your guardians and have you punished for decency." 

"Thanks." Harry was properly confused now. Why was Moody talking to him if he wasn't going to be punished?

"Now, do you know how you're going to get past your dragon?" 

The day of the first task was a blur. When Harry looked back, he knew he'd followed Moody's advice and used a summoning charm on his broom to fly past a Hungarian horntail and collect a golden egg. But his clearest memory from that day was Ron coming up to him afterwards and apologizing for not believing him. 

With the first task over, Harry expected to be let off the hook until February. People were starting to leave him alone now that he'd proved he could hold his own. Unfortunately, McGonagall rudely burst his bubble. 

"The Yule what-?"

"Ball, Harry. The champions are expected to open the dancing with their partners." 

Harry felt like he was going to throw up. He had to dance? In front of everyone? With a girl he somehow had to convince to come with him? 

"Do I have to?" 

"Yes. Now get going or you'll be late for class." 

Harry desperately wanted to ask Cho Chang, a very pretty fifth year Ravenclaw who he'd played against in quidditch the year before, but he never seemed to see her when she was on her own. Sirius and Remus were no help. His only consolation was that some of his friends seemed to be having the same problems. 

Some being the key word. They found out that Hermione had secured a date, though she wouldn't reveal his identity even under duress. Draco was taking Lavender Brown. The fact that a Slytherin and a Gryffindor were going together caused a mild scandal. And Neville was taking Ginny because he thought it was unfair that she, as a third year, couldn't go without a date. 

At last, Harry found a chance to ask Cho while sending a letter to Regulus. He nearly blew it, almost letting her leave the owlry without asking, but eventually he got the words out. 

"I'm so sorry, Harry. But I already said I'd go with someone else." 

Harry's heart sank. "Do you mind telling me who?" 

"Cedric Diggory." 

His friends were sympathetic when he told them, though they were clearly trying to hide their lack of surprise. 

In the end, Draco took it upon himself to get Harry and Ron dates with Pavarti and Padma Patil. The night of the ball, Harry and Pavarti lined up with the other champions while everyone else filed into the great hall. Harry was shocked to discover that Victor Krum's very pretty date was Hermione. 

The ball itself was not very much fun. Harry discovered he was not a good dancer, and Pavarti eventually abandoned him to dance with a boy from Beauxbatons. He spent most of the night watching Cho and Cedric dance, stewing in his own jealousy. 

Under the haze of jealousy--and the slight influence of butterbeer--Harry felt something gnawing on his brain. Yes, he was extremely envious of Cedric because of his crush on Cho, but there was something else he couldn't quite recognize. 

He looked away again, and caught sight of Seamus and Dean dancing together in an out of the way corner of the dance floor. They were drawing a few glances, but he was glad nobody was giving them a hard time. 

Harry looked back at Cedric and Cho. They swirled in a beautiful arc. He had to admit it, they were a beautiful couple. Cho was practically glowing, helped of course by her glittery dress. And Cedric was equally radiant with joy in classy, well-tailored dress robes.

Oh. _Oh_. Oh no. Harry realized in a sudden moment of clarity that he wasn't just jealous of Cedric. He was also jealous of _Cho_.


	12. Twelve

The boys came home by floo the morning after the Yule ball. They were both clearly groggy from a late night and early morning, so Remus made sure to give them some space for the day. Sirius’ strong suggestion of a nap was initially met with considerable resistance, but the silence coming from their rooms a few hours later suggested that at least one of them was asleep.

By dinner, Draco seemed to have recovered and proceeded to catch them up on the Hogwarts gossip. He was especially excited to tell them about two of Harry's bunkmates, who went to the ball together. 

Remus squeezed Sirius' hand under the table. They may not have been able to do something like that when they were fourteen, but he was glad the next generation could. 

"Don't go telling the whole world," Harry snapped. "Seamus and Dean have a right to privacy." 

"I'm not telling the whole world! I'm just telling Remus and Sirius. I thought they might be happy to hear about it and they certainly won't spread the story around..." 

"Draco, Harry's right. Outing people without their consent is extremely rude and can even put them in danger in some cases. But Harry, Draco's also right. It’s great to hear that the two of them feel comfortable being out at school," Remus intervened, glancing at Sirius for help. 

"Who wants dessert?" Sirius jumped up from the table. Some help.

After dessert, they watched a muggle Christmas movie and did presents. The gifts to and from Regulus remained unopened under the tree since they would be going to visit him the next day. 

Draco went off to get ready for bed at the end of the movie, while Harry stayed put on the couch. Other than his outburst at dinner, he'd been uncharacteristically quiet all day. 

"How’d-how did you know you, you know, liked...boys?" Harry suddenly asked so quietly that Remus had to lean in to hear. 

Sirius gazed into Remus' eyes for a second before answering. "I guess I always knew." 

"Oh," Harry looked down at his hands. Remus could sense the awkwardness radiating from him.

"It took me much longer," Remus said quickly. "I was in fifth year and after a particularly bad transformation I had to stay in bed instead of going to class. Sirius brought me my homework, and something just clicked when I realized how handsome he looked with a pile of books in his arms and a concerned frown on his face.” 

"It's different for everyone." Sirius put his arm around Harry, who relaxed into the fatherly embrace. 

Draco returned in his pajamas a few seconds later and the moment was over. Harry disappeared to put his PJs on as well. After a hasty goodnight everyone retreated to their own beds.

"What was that about?" Remus wondered aloud to Sirius after the boys were asleep. 

"Our boy is growing up. It's natural that he has questions about dating and stuff." 

"But such a specific question. Do you think-" 

"He'll let us know, whatever he figures out, when he's ready." 

"When did you become the wise one?" 

"Always have been." Sirius pulled him close and trailed kisses down his neck. “Let’s go to bed.”

"You've convinced me," Remus hummed. 

Harry seemed happier after their conversation. He was back to his chatty self while they had a belated Yule feast at Regulus' house. A year of cleaning up the place, along with significant magical redecorating, made number twelve almost cheerful to visit. As long as they didn't wake the portrait of Mrs. Black. Harry and Draco were getting an education in slurs from the woman’s endless tirades against Sirius.

Remus still worried about him a little, but watching Harry instigate a prank on Regulus, aided by Draco and abetted by Sirius, he knew his son would be okay. Back at the cottage, he made sure to leave some books that might answer more of Harry's questions lying around in strategic places.

Nothing else came of the conversation, in fact, until the last night of the holidays. 

It was the first time Harry, Sirius, and Remus had been alone since that night. Draco, who strongly reminded Remus of his younger self, was reading in another room while the rest of them played cards. 

"Thanks for talking to me that other night," Harry said halfway through a game of rummy. He didn't specify the conversation in question, but it was fairly obvious what he meant.

"Of course, love," Sirius smiled. He laid down some cards. 

"We're always here to talk, even about the hard stuff." 

"Especially about the hard stuff." 

"Well," Harry trailed off as he scanned the cards on the table. "I-I’m bisexual." 

"That's great, Harry!" Remus gave him a quick squeeze. 

"Had a feeling no son of mine could turn out straight," Sirius laughed, ruffling Harry's hair. 

Remus raised an eyebrow at Sirius.

"I'm only kidding, of course. I'd love you even if you were a rampant heterosexual." 

“Sirius!”

Harry laughed and laid down a bunch of cards. "I win!"

"You didn't come out to us just to distract us from your winning hand, did you?" Sirius mock pouted.

"No, but it certainly helped," Harry laughed. 

Remus' heart soared at the absolute joy in their son's laughter and the subtle improvement in his posture. It was a parent's duty to take such weights off their children's shoulders.


	13. Thirteen

Now that winter break was over, Harry was starting to worry about the second task. He was supposed to figure out the clue hidden inside the golden egg he'd won from the dragon, but so far all it did was scream. 

A few days after the new term started, Cedric came to find him. He gave Harry a cryptic hint about taking a bath with the egg and then left for whatever class he was late for. 

Harry tried not to read anything into Cedric's suggestion that he use the prefects' bathroom. He probably just thought Harry might have more privacy there. It definitely wasn’t a proposition. Cedric was dating Cho, which was very annoying because Harry would rather be dating either one of them. 

The hint was so annoyingly vague, too, that Harry avoided taking Cedric's advice until he was truly desperate for information. He snuck out of bed well after hours and used the suggested bathroom. 

It turned out that putting the egg underwater turned the screams into a beautiful song, and Harry eventually worked out that he would have to steal something back from the mermaids who lived at the bottom of the lake. 

He was nearly caught on his way back to his dorm, but Moody saved his skin and sent him off to bed after borrowing the Marauders map. 

How was he supposed to spend an hour underwater? The next morning, Harry enlisted his gang of friends in helping search the library for a useful spell. 

“You could ask Sirius how he became an animagus,” Ron suggested from behind a stack of books after a fruitless couple of hours. “Become a goldfish or a frog or something else that has gills.” 

“Frogs don’t have gills,” Hermione argued.

“But they’re fish.” 

Harry pointed out that they didn’t have time to unpack wizards’ lack of scientific education, and that whether or not frogs were fish was beside the point. He did not have time to learn to be an animagus in under a week.

“Gills! I’m so stupid!” Neville cried as he slammed down a book. 

Madam Pince and Hermione shushed him simultaneously. 

“Sorry. I’ll be right back.” He rushed out of the library. 

“What was that about?” Dudley asked. But everyone just shrugged.

Neville returned, breathlessly clutching a book, several minutes later. He took a moment to catch his breath before rifling through the book. Once he’d found the page he was looking for, he shoved the book into Harry’s hands. 

“Professor Moody gave me this book after our first lesson. Gillyweed! It’ll give you gills!” 

Harry skimmed the page. “Neville, you’re a genius!”

“Where are you going to get some?” 

Neville’s face fell. 

“I know!” Draco’s eyes lit up. “Snape has some in his storeroom. He made me bottle it last time he gave me detention for ‘damaging the reputation of our most noble house,’ aka eating dinner with you lot.”

“D’you think you can get your hands on some?” 

“Leave that to me,” Hermione said quietly. 

Harry recognized a rare gleam in her eyes that meant she was scheming. Hermione rarely broke any rules, but when she did it was always in a spectacular fashion.

The day of the second task, Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen. Harry wondered what had happened to them as he prepared to walk down to the lake alone. He had a jar of gillyweed in his pocket, courtesy of Hermione’s surreptitious thievery in potions class. 

The plant worked brilliantly. Within a few seconds of swallowing it, Harry grew gills that allowed him to breathe underwater. His own performance was less brilliant, though the judges seemed to think that his stupidly thinking the adults would let the mermaids’ hostages drown if their champions failed to rescue them showed moral fibre and gave him extra points for it. 

“You’re tied with Diggory!” Draco said when Madam Pompfrey finally released Harry, Ron, and Hermione to their friends.

“Looking good for a Hogwarts victory,” Dudley added. 

Harry was proud of tying with Cedric, but he now also felt an immense pressure to perform well in the third task even though it was months away. Not dying in the first task had gotten most people to stop harassing him for taking away Cedric’s spotlight as Hogwarts champion, but his performance in the second task meant that people now stopped him in the hallways to congratulate him. 

It was all incredibly emotionally taxing. Even tea with Hagrid, usually a comforting escape from his troubles and recently a weekly necessity to help rebuild Hagrid’s self esteem after the half-giant scandal, was becoming stressful because of Hagrid’s habit of expressing his faith in Harry’s ability to win. 

There was also the matter of Rita Skeeter’s continued articles about Harry. How she was getting the information, no one knew, but she kept publishing slanderous articles about everything from Harry’s champion status to speculation about how his ‘unusual’ upbringing sparked his ‘need for attention’.

After a particularly nasty article about a supposed love triangle between Harry, Hermione, and Victor Krum, Harry received a letter from Sirius. He and Remus intended to sue Skeeter for slander and harassing a minor. They also wanted to charge her with stalking Harry, but nobody could prove how she was getting her stories since she wasn’t allowed on the Hogwarts grounds and hadn’t been seen breaking that rule. 

“Someone ought to ask Pansy Parkinson,” Draco muttered when Harry told his friends about the lawsuit. “She’s always swanning about the Slytherin common room, reading _The Prophet_ or _Witch Weekly_ aloud to show off where Skeeter quoted her.” 

“Is Parkinson quoted in _every_ article?” Hermione wondered.

“Seems like it.” 

Hermione jumped up. “I need-”

“-to go to the library. We know,” everyone else teased.


	14. Fourteen

Remus felt torn in a thousand directions. He was so close to tracking down another horcrux, he could feel it, but now there was the Skeeter lawsuit to distract him. He was glad Sirius had a cause to fight for, and he was equally emotionally invested in protecting their son from false press, but it unfortunately came at the worst time. 

And then there was the Pettigrew situation. There hadn’t been any further sightings, to Remus’ knowledge anyway, but that was almost as worrying. Especially because the elderly muggle groundskeeper for the abandoned Riddle estate had gone missing only a couple months later. 

The ministry’s search for Bertha Jorkins had gone cold, too. Not that they would admit it. Remus was more sure than ever that all this was connected, and that did not bode well. At least Harry was safe at Hogwarts under Mad-Eye’s guard.

“I think I want to go back to school,” Sirius said one night, a few weeks after they started the formal lawsuit against Skeeter. 

Remus readjusted the blankets so that Sirius was no longer hogging them. “What for?” 

“Law.” 

“ _Really_?” 

“Don’t sound so shocked,” Sirius pouted. 

“Sorry Pads.” Remus gave him an apologetic kiss on the forehead. “You’re just such a rulebreaker, it seems out of character.” 

“I only break rules that I don’t agree with.”

“And being a lawyer would help you get around those unjust rules?” 

Sirius laughed gently. “Partially. But mostly it’s to protect Harry. Between that triwizard contract debacle someone got him into, and now Skeeter, I feel like I need to know more to keep him out of trouble.” 

“What a good father you are.” Remus kissed Sirius again. “James and Lily would be so proud.” 

“I’ll keep our son safe or die trying.” 

With Sirius invested in figuring out how to simultaneously get Rita Skeeter out of their business and himself into law school, Remus was free to keep chasing the horcrux lead. He knew Voldemort had possessed Hufflepuff’s cup at the same time as Slytherin’s locket, he just didn’t know where it was hidden. 

He expressed his frustration to Dumbledore at their next meeting.

“Where were the others hidden?”

“The diary was entrusted to Malfoy, the ring was in the Gaunts’ house, and the locket was in the cave Riddle visited as a kid,” Remus listed off. He resented being treated like he was still one of Dumbledore’s students.

“Are there any patterns?” 

“The diary went to a trusted servant, the ring and the locket went to obscure hiding spots that were related to Riddle’s life story. But as for other hiding spots, that only leaves the orphanage, which is unlikely, or Hogwarts. And we’ve searched every inch of the castle.” 

“Every inch we know about,” Dumbeldore corrected. “But if we cannot think of any hiding places chosen by Riddle himself, then that leaves what?” 

“Another trusted servant? But Malfoy is the highest status of all the death eaters to escape Azkaban. And he couldn’t even be trusted enough to be told what the diary actually was.”

“Perhaps a servant inside Azkaban, then. I shall have to make some inquiries.” 

A month passed before Dumbledore called Remus to his office again. In that time Harry’d been informed about the final task and had a strange encounter with the now-missing Barty Crouch. Remus couldn’t wait for the tournament to end so Harry could be safe again. The only times he wasn’t actively worrying about his son these days were when he was too busy actively being a werewolf.

Dumbledore revealed that on a recent visit to Azkaban, he’d secured a memory from Bellatrix Lestrange. The memory confirmed the cup had been entrusted to her shortly before the end of the war. The problem was, it was inside her vault at Gringotts. Getting inside that vault would either require a break-in--not a good idea--or a warrant from the ministry, and obtaining one would be about as easy as the former. 

But somehow, impossibly, Dumbledore managed it. In mid-June, Remus was allowed to retrieve the cup from the Lestranges’ vault under the watchful eye of Gringotts’ manager and three aurors. The aurors escorted him, and the cup, to Hogwarts. They left once Dumbledore had the cup in his hands. 

Sirius, who needed a break from everything he was working on, met them at Dumbledore’s office. Remus had promised him he could destroy the next horcrux, and this was the chance to make good on that promise. 

Sirius took the sword of Gryffindor from its glass case. Remus thought he looked quite regal holding the glittering sword. Then he plunged it into the cup. It screamed as the ring had done, and when the scream died it lay broken on the headmaster’s desk. 

“Four down,” Remus whispered into the ringing silence. One to go.


	15. Fifteen

Harry’s childhood experiences had, by and large, taught him that although sometimes the world was a scary place where things went horribly wrong, there was usually a way to fix it before permanent damage could occur. He’d always had a way out of close scrapes, and warm parental guidance to turn to for support in the aftermath.

None of that could have prepared him for watching a classmate--an older, smarter, cooler, classmate on whom he had a crush--die right in front of him, especially not right before watching Lord Voldemort come back from the dead and then having to duel him. 

Harry returned from the Little Hangleton graveyard clutching Cedric Diggory’s corpse, and his world was never the same again. To add insult to injury, he was immediately abducted and threatened by a man he thought was his protector. 

When it was all over, after the adults rescued him from Barty Crouch Jr. and they heard the whole horrible tale of his plot to help his master return, after Dumbledore made him recount his own experiences in the graveyard, after he was escorted to the hospital wing, Harry cried and cried. Sirius and Remus held him, and he let them despite usually considering himself too old for such obvious displays of affection from his parents. 

“Thank you,” he said, his voice hoarse, when he’d cried himself out. 

“Of course, Harry,” Remus replied. 

Sirius nodded emphatically, gently squeezing his hand. “That’s what we're here for.”

Madam Pomfrey bustled over with a goblet and made him take a large mouthful of a deep purple potion. Harry fell asleep instantly. 

When he woke up, there was a ring of adults around his bed. They were making plans in hushed but urgent whispers. All conversation stopped the second they noticed his eyes were open, which seemed rather unfair to him as he was pretty sure he was heavily involved in their plans.

“How are you feeling?” Dumbledore asked. 

“Fine.” 

Sirius frowned. “How are you _really_ feeling?” 

“Lousy.” 

Remus led Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape out of the hospital wing, leaving Sirius and Harry alone. A moment later, Harry’s friends streamed through the doors to wish him well. Harry mostly let the conversation flow around him. He wondered if there was more of that sleeping potion; right now all he really wanted was to sleep for about a year. 

The memory of the ghostly forms emerging from Voldemort's wand haunted him. All those people struck down before their time because one man desired power. And he was the only friendly face they'd seen since their deaths. 

Cedric. He'd watched him die and then talked to his ghost so soon after that it gave him whiplash. Smart, strong, handsome Cedric, gone forever with only Harry around to honor his last request. Harry would've brought Cedric back to his parents anyway--how could he leave him cold and alone in that horrible graveyard full of death eaters--but he had to after that. 

And his biological parents had been there too. Despite how they looked in pictures and that mirror from his first year, Harry always imagined them as the same age as Sirius and Remus. But their ghosts were so _young_. Younger than Ron's oldest brothers. It shook him almost as much as seeing Voldemort come back to life. 

There hadn't been much time for a reunion with them, either. His mother told him they were proud of him, his father gave him a message for Sirius and Remus, and then it was time to act. Looking back, during the many sleepless nights that followed, Harry knew it was their strength that saved him in that graveyard. 

"Dad told me to tell you he's so glad that you two raised his son," Harry told his parents the next time they were alone. "He said he and mum can rest easy knowing you're protecting me and teaching me to carry on the marauder spirit." 

"What a sap.” Harry thought he heard a disguised sob behind Sirius’ barklike laugh.

There were tears in Remus' eyes. "I'm glad to hear it. Even if the circumstances that allowed the message are too grim to think about." 

Harry endured another hug from his parents. He was so lucky to have them. To still be there with them.

The last few days of school passed Harry by. Madam Pomfrey finally released him from the hospital wing for the end of term feast, which felt more like a funeral than a celebration. Dumbledore gave a eulogy for Cedric that turned him into a martyr, but Harry felt that was unfair. Cedric was just a boy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Harry and Draco didn’t take the train home from school that year. They used the floo in McGonagall’s office to return to the cottage because Remus and Sirius were taking no chances with either of their safety. Mr. Malfoy had been among the circle of death eaters that night, and nobody was sure if he was willing to let his son live among his enemies any longer. 

On the bright side, the lawsuit against Rita Skeeter had been successful. She settled out of court the day after the tournament, which surprised everyone until Hermione revealed her discovery that the reporter was an unregistered animagus. Apparently, she’d threatened to expose Skeeter unless she stopped writing horrible articles about Harry. 

Mostly, though, Harry was just glad to go home and rest with his dads and brother. This year had truly been one for the books. It would be a long time before he was okay again, but thanks to his family and friends he knew he would get there eventually.


End file.
